7 a wonderful find
soon the stars filled the sky. an owl hooted, and the wind whispered something in the treesoverhead. but the four children did not see the stars nor hear the owl and the wind. they weretired out. they slept solidly, and though dinah was almost smothered with the rug over her head,she did not wake or move.
kiki slept too, her head under her wing. she was perched on a branch of the birch tree just overjack’s head. she awoke when she heard the owl, and hooted back softly. then she put her headback under her wing and slept again.
when dawn came the children were still asleep. kiki awoke before they did. she stretched outfirst one wing and then the other. she erected the feathers on her head and shook them. then shescratched her neck thoughtfully and gazed down at philip.
lizzie the lizard was also awake and was running over the rug that covered philip. she came towhere philip’s feet stuck out and disappeared under the rug there. kiki’s sharp eyes watched thelittle moving bump she made under the rug as she made her way all the way up philip’s body andappeared by his neck.
‘wipe your feet,’ said kiki suddenly to the lizard. ‘how many times, how many times have itold you to wipe your feet?’
lizzie was startled. she leapt from philip’s neck on to jack and stood half hidden in his hair,looking up into the trees, though she could focus on nothing there. kiki, annoyed at seeing lizziedaring to tread on her beloved master, gave an exasperated squawk and flew down to peck thelizard, who promptly disappeared under the rug again.
kiki landed heavily on jack’s middle and gave a vicious peck where the rug covered philip’sright leg, for she could see the moving bump there that meant the lizard was running downwards.
both jack and philip awoke with a start.
they stared up into the trees, amazed to see green leaves waving above them. then they turnedtheir heads and saw one another. in a flash they remembered everything.
‘couldn’t think where i was,’ said jack, and sat up. ‘oh, kiki, it’s you on my middle, is it? doget off. here, have some sunflower seeds and keep quiet, or you’ll wake the girls.’
he put his hand in his pocket and took out some of the flat seeds that kiki loved. she flew up tothe bough above, cracking two in her beak.
the boys began to talk quietly, so as not to disturb the girls, who were still sleeping peacefully.
‘gosh, i feel better now,’ said jack, stretching out his arms. ‘i was so tired last night i couldhave cried. what about you, philip?’
‘i’m all right too,’ said philip, and he yawned hugely. ‘but sleepy still. well, we haven’t got toget up for breakfast. we shan’t hear any gong sounding here. let’s have another snooze.’
but jack was now too wide awake to snooze. he slipped out from under the rug and went towash himself at the spring. he gazed downwards and saw the spire of smoke rising up just as ithad yesterday.
‘those fellows are up and about,’ he said to himself. ‘must be getting late in the morning, isuppose. the sun’s fairly high. blow! i forgot to wind up my watch last night.’
soon the girls woke up and were amazed to find they had slept soundly all the night through andhad apparently not even stirred. dinah looked to see where lizzie was.
‘it’s all right,’ said philip amiably. ‘she’s down one of my socks. i like the feel of her tinyfingers on my leg.’
‘ugh! you’re awful!’ said dinah. ‘well, i’m going to wash. then we’ll have breakfast – onlycake and biscuits, i’m afraid.’
unfortunately they were all so hungry that they devoured the cake, the biscuits and the rest ofthe chocolate too. now there was no food left at all.
‘we’ll just have to do something about it – about the food question, i mean,’ said dinah. ‘evenifit means eating your lizard, philip.’
‘she wouldn’t make more than a mouthful, would you, liz?’ said philip. ‘hallo – what’s that?’
‘that’ was the sound of voices. hurriedly the four children got up, and, dragging their rugs,macks and other clothes with them, they ran quickly to the cowshed. they dumped the things intothe last stall and crouched there, panting.
‘have we left anything at all out there?’ whispered jack.
‘don’t think so,’ whispered back philip. ‘the grass is a bit flattened, that’s all. let’s hope theywon’t notice it.’
there was a crack in the side of the old cowshed and jack put his eye to it. they had only justgot away in time. the men were coming slowly up towards the birch trees, talking. they came towhere the children had slept the night before.
the men walked right past the spot, then one of them stopped and looked back with a puzzledexpression. he gazed at the place where the children had slept. what he said they couldn’t hear,but he pointed to the flattened grass. both men then walked back and looked earnestly down at it.
‘what’s done that?’ asked the man called juan.
‘funny,’ said the other man. he had a large pink face with full lips, and his eyes looked small incomparison. ‘some animal, perhaps?’
‘why – that’s big enough for an elephant or two to lie on!’ said juan. ‘shall we have a lookround?’
the other man looked at his watch. ‘no. not now,’ he said. ‘when we come back, perhaps.
we’ve got a lot to do today. come on. it can’t be anything really.’
they went on again and were soon lost to sight among the trees. ‘i’m going to get up a tree withmy field glasses and follow them with them as they go,’ said jack to the others. ‘we must makecertain they really are gone before we show ourselves.’
he went cautiously out of the shed and ran quickly to a tall tree. he was up it in a trice, for hewas an excellent climber. he sat at the top, balanced on a swaying branch, his legs wound tightlyround it. he put his glasses to his eyes.
as soon as the men came out on to the grassy, flowery part of the hillside he saw them. theydid not take the same direction as the children had taken the day before, but kept on the flowerypart for a long time. jack could see them easily with his glasses. then they took out a map orpaper and stood there looking at it between them.
‘not sure of their way,’ thought the boy. ‘ah – now they’re off again.’
the men began to climb steeply and jack watched them as long as he could see them. then theyrounded a great crag of rock and disappeared from sight. he slid down the tree.
‘gracious! we thought you’d gone to sleep in the tree,’ said dinah impatiently. ‘i’m tired ofwaiting in this filthy shed. have the men gone?’
‘yes. they’re far away now,’ said jack. ‘it’s quite safe to come out and have a look round.
they didn’t go the way we did. i watched them climbing very steeply up the mountainside. comeon – let’s get off whilst we can.’
‘we could go and have a look inside the aeroplane now,’ said dinah. so they all hurried downto the valley, and came to where the big aeroplane stood on its enormous wheels. the fourchildren climbed up the steps into the cockpit.
‘the big crate’s gone,’ said jack at once. ‘i wonder how they got it out. it must have beenempty or they could never have managed it between them. look – there’s where we hid the othernight!’
philip and jack hunted all round the plane for food or information. but there was no food at all,and not a scrap of paper that would give them any idea as to who the men were or why they hadcome there.
they all climbed out again. ‘blow!’ said jack. ‘we’re no better off now! not even a bar ofchocolate. we shall starve!’
‘if we could explore that hut you saw the men by last night, i bet we’d find plenty of food,’ saiddinah. ‘don’t you remember the men saying, “let’s go to the hut and have a meal”? well, theycouldn’t have a meal without food, could they? – so the food must be there.’
this was a distinctly cheering idea. jack led the way to where he had seen the men sitting by thecampfire the night before. the fire was almost out, though it was still smouldering a little.
the hut lay near by. it was tumbledown, but not burnt as had been all the other buildings theyhad seen. rough repairs had been done to it. the one window looked strong, and was hardly bigenough for anyone to get in or out, if he had wanted to. the door was also a strong one. it wasshut.
‘locked, of course,’ said jack, giving it a tug. ‘and they’ve taken the key. who did theyimagine was going to come along and take anything? they don’t know a thing about us.’
‘let’s look in at the window,’ said lucy-ann. ‘we could see inside easily.’
jack hoisted philip up. the boy looked inside, finding it difficult at first to make out anything,because the interior of the shed was dark. the only light came in from the small window.
‘ah – now i can see better,’ said philip. ‘there are a couple of mattresses – and rugs – and atable and some chairs – and a stove of some kind. and gosh – just look at that !’
‘what?’ cried everyone impatiently. lucy-ann jumped up and down, trying to see in at thewindow too.
‘stacks of food!’ said philip. ‘tins and tins of it! and pots and jars of stuff! golly, they makemy mouth water.’
jack could bear philip’s weight no longer. he set him down with a jerk.
‘hoist me up, now,’ he said, and philip gave him a hoist. jack’s eyes nearly fell out of his headwhen he saw the food, neatly piled on shelves that ran along one side of the hut.
‘it’s a kind of storehouse, or resthouse,’ he said, jumping down from philip’s back. ‘my word,if we could only get some! why did those men take the key? distrustful creatures!’
‘can we get in at the window?’ asked philip, and he looked eagerly up at it. ‘no, we can’t. noteven lucy-ann could get in there. besides, it can’t be opened. it’s just a pane of glass set into thewindow frame, with no catch or fastener to open it. we’d have to smash it – and that would giveaway the fact that somebody was here.’
the children wandered gloomily round the shed. then they set off to see if there was anythingelse to be found near by. but there wasn’t.
‘i suppose we’d better get back to our own shed and remove our things, and hide themsomewhere else in case those men do have a look round when they come back,’ said jack. ‘how ihate leaving all that food in this shed! i’m starving.’
‘so am i,’ said lucy-ann. ‘i could almost eat kiki’s sunflower seeds.’
‘well, have some,’ said jack, holding out a handful. ‘they’re not poisonous.’
‘no, thanks,’ said lucy-ann. ‘i’m not as starving as all that.’
philip went up to the door of the shed and glared at it. ‘i’d like to knock you down,’ he said.
‘standing there between ourselves and a good square meal. take that!’
to the great amusement of the others he aimed a hearty kick at the door, and then another.
it flew open. the children gasped in surprise, and stared. ‘it wasn’t locked, after all!’ cried jack,‘just shut. what idiots we were to think it was locked! come on – now for a feast!’
